1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention relates to a system and method for automated remittance of payments from consumers to vendors and an associated remittance document. A billing service provider or vendor obtains pre-authorization from consumers to initiate electronic funds transfer transactions upon the provider's or vendor's receipt and verification of remittance documents from the consumers.
2. Description of the Background Art
For numerous reasons (such as lack of expertise or lack of computer facilities), many goods and services vendors find the process of billing their consumers to be a cost ineffective endeavor. Therefore, vendors frequently have billing service providers handle the billing process, including preparation of statements for the consumers, collection of funds, generation of reports, and similar duties. Even with these services the collecting and transferring of funds from the consumers to the vendors has required wasted time and costs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,650,975 discloses an identifying card and a system of employing these cards for transferring funds upon consumers' requests. This system is directed to security problems associated with the transfer of funds.
Described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,682,014 is a simple data input apparatus including a magnetic card reader. This patent is not immediately related to the subject invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,696,034 relates a high security pay television system in which the usage is accumulated at a central point for later billing. Included is a removable memory module for return to the billing facility.
Disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,743,747 is a postage and mailing information applying system. Encrypted messages containing postage fees are applied to pieces of mail for high speed authentication.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,752,675 illustrates a method of collecting response data from direct mail advertising. The effectiveness of the advertising is determined by analyzing the returned documents with a master file. In contrast to the subject invention, no funds are transferred and no consumer pre-authorizations are involved in this process. Similarly, both U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,760,532 and 4,760,534 disclose a mailing system with both postage value transfer and accounting capabilities, but these are related to keeping track of postage and not involved with the pre-authorized electronic transfer of funds.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,354 relates a system for controlling the supply of utility services to consumers. Little, if any, overlap with the subject invention exists. An actuator card is inserted by the consumer into a device to initiate the desired services and to facilitate billing.
Various mailers have been disclosed in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 1,946,751 discloses a bank check postcard folder. The folder allows a company to mail a check to a party by using the same name and address as appears on the actual check. A statement of the account may be included. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 4,585,160 describes a negotiable instrument mailing device that allows the recipient to use the same mailer, refolded, to return the requested information.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,977,597 and 4,706,877 relate to one piece, two-way mailer. The return stub portion in '597 is detached and inserted into a mailer, the refolded original mailer, with the payment and posted. For the '877 patent, the return stub is inserted into a return mailer that is prepared by the consumer by pealing off the original address label to expose a new pre-printed address.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,093,117 and 4,502,713 disclose postal forms suitable for mailing messages, bills, advertisements, and similar information to consumers. An internal slide card is provided with the '117 disclosure. To read the information supplied by the form, the consumer snaps the slide card out of the envelope. The form provided in the '713 patent is designed to eliminate difficulties arising from the contact of glue with printing equipment.
Disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,109 is a coded document and document reading system. This invention is designed to facilitate the reading of documents with markable areas and having coded pattern signatures. Once the document is scanned by a video camera and the image stored, the position within the stored pixel data of each of the markable locations on the card document is determined by analyzing the identifying signatures. This system permits the location of the markable areas regardless of the physical orientation of the document card.